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Alan Turing Gets Royal Pardon For 'gross Indecency' – 61 Years After He Poisoned Himself
The British government is putting up 42 million pounds (nearly US$70 million) to fund a research center bearing the name of computer pioneer Alan Turing.
Credit: The Independent
He was the father of modern computing whose work on the Enigma code at Bletchley Park is said to have shortened the Second World War.
But he was also gay and in those less enlightened times was chemically castrated by an ungrateful nation after being convicted of "gross indecency" with a man in 1952.
Now, nearly 60 years after his suicide from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41, Alan Turing has been officially pardoned by the Queen under the little-known Royal Prerogative of Mercy.
From The Independent
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